How to kick someone in the testicles

First things first, this information is intended to be used in self defence situations or in order to satisfy your sick curiosity. I do not suggest that you go out and try this on the first guy you run into, and I will not accept any responsibility for stupidity on the part of anyone who abuses this information.

It would seem that kicking an adversary below the belt would be a fairly straightforward technique, and one ideally suited to a street fight, where your objective should be to incapacitate your opponent(s) as quickly as possible and get the hell out of there before someone pulls a gun or a knife, or calls some friends over to help.

While a kick to the testicles can be highly effective in ending a fight, the majority of people do not know how to properly exercise this technique, and as a result their kicks may not be as effective as they ought to be.

Most people, when kicking below the belt, simply swing their foot straight up between the opponent's legs, making contact with the centre of the foot (the part of the foot on or just below the shoe laces) and striking both the opponent's testicles.

While such a kick is likely to give the adversary an initial shock, he will quickly realise that it does not hurt as much as he expected. Any real pain he experiences will probably come after the fight is over.

This is because the testicles, when subjected to an evenly distributed shock, will retract back without too much damage being done.

In order to effectively kick the testicles, you should have in mind the following principles:

1 - You should try to gather the force of your kick in a small striking area. If you have studied martial arts in any detail you will be aware that more damage is done from a single-knuckled strike than a punch which connects evenly with the whole of the fist. When you reduce the size of the striking area you will concentrate all the energy of the attack into a smaller area and do a great deal of damage.

2 - You should aim to connect with either the left or right testicle - not both. While such precision may be initially beyond your abilities, some practice in kicking small targets will quickly improve your proficiency in this. If you have studied a striking martial art such as karate or tae kwon do then you may well have good enough aim to strike a single testicle.

The reason for striking only one side is to prevent the testicles from retracting.

3 - Follow through with your kick. Do not stop exerting force once contact with the target is made. This is done in order to catch the target between the striking area of your foot and bone in the attacker's groin, causing significant discomfort.

So, to put this into practice, Jill is walking down the street when she is confronted by a mugger. His stance is with his legs open, allowing access to the appropriate target area. Jill forcefully throws a rising kick between the opponent's legs and very slightly to the left of the centre line. She strikes with her toe in order to concentrate the entire force of the kick into a small area, and follows through until the kick is stopped by bone. Shew then quickly withdraws her foot to prevent the opponent trapping it.

Once again I would like to point out that this technique is not to be taken lightly. It can cause a severe amount of pain and should only be used in self defence.

This is something my Sensei taught me when I studied Jiu Jitsu. When someone tries to kick you in the balls, it's very unlikely that it will be a horizontal kick connecting the ball of their foot with your testicles. Also, it is highly unlikely that they will try to connect their toe with your testicles alone. The reason is that both of these require a level of precision that the average assailant simply will not have. What they will do is bring their foot up in an arc between your legs, attempting to contact your testicles, which are the lowest point of your crotch, with the top of the foot, the front of the ankle, or the lower shin. As you can imagine, this requires a very low degree of precision, it's almost impossible to miss.

The technique to counter this is deceptively simple. Stand with your feet approximately shoulder-width apart, with one foot slightly in front of the other, with the heel and toe level, and the front foot turned slightly inwards. Now thrust your hips forward and down. There should be almost no actual movement, but you will feel your buttocks pressed tightly together. This has the effect of making a pad of muscle from the upper-inner-back of your thighs the lowest point between your legs.

Now when someone kicks you, it will still hurt because after all you are still absorbing the force of the impact, but it is by no means enough to do you any real damage. I personally have used this technique to great effect. When somone kicks you in the balls, they fully expect you to go down - the idea you need to convey is that they did kick you, but that you are in total control of the pain. Pause for a second, grimace, then turn your leading foot straight and release the tension in your hips with a reverse punch straight to your opponent's upper chest.

Incidentally, Sensei also said that if you do want to kick someone between the legs, the objective is to follow through with enough force to at least knock them over, and if possible break the pelvis.